10 Rules for Hope - Coping in Today's News Cycle

It’s hard to know what to believe right now, the mainstream media, cable news, blogs, and YouTube videos, what happened to be able to trust what you were told?

Do we stay home, get tested, go back to work in the office, open our business back up, protest, stay away from the protest, or as is being posted on various sites like Next-door, participate in “peaceful protest”?

One thing is for sure, in our profession we have become a euphemism for the term “sandwich generation”, referring to middle-aged parents caring for their parents while finishing raising their kids.

Caught between our need for an income, we have house payments, car payments, food, and utilities to pay for, regardless of our view of what’s happening in society, right?

We also have a book of business to continue servicing to protect our clients and the income we earn from this book of business, which is at risk due to all the upheaval.

Yes, starting back up or if you have been working in this new online/phone sales environment where do you get hope, confidence, or direction from?

There are now a ton of instant “experts”, those who a year ago weren’t talking about online/phone sales and are now pushing webinars like they suddenly became experts.

I believe W.C. Clement Stone, the founder of Combined Insurance company, said “Hope is the magic ingredient in motivating yourself or others.” If it wasn’t him, it was Napoleon Hill or Dale Carnage, regardless, where can we look with confidence to put these current times in context and become more confident in our business decisions?

If we don’t learn from the past, we are destined to repeat those mistakes so let’s look back at similar times and find the common denominators.

Every day we hear about rising gas prices, food prices going up, stock market going down, yes, we hear good reports on the job market, with increasing wages (being eaten away by high inflation) but aren’t’ those great job reports just people who lost their job or left their job due to the pandemic? (If so, then is that real job growth?)

So, what are we to think?

If the past is any roadmap into the future, we may find out that the economy, like life, is circular, the more things change the more they stay the same, so let’s see what the past tells us.

The Great Recession (December 2007 to June 2009)?

The country’s GDP?fell by 4.3%?and the unemployment rate would eventually reach 10%.?

It occurred on the tail end of a subprime mortgage crisis (where the U.S. foreclosure rate?jumped 79%?in 2007),?which?crashed?the U.S. housing market and sunk home prices.??

Dot-com recession (March 2001 to November 2001)?

The?dot-com bubble?burst in 2000 when an over-inflated Nasdaq lost more than 75% of its value and wiped out a generation of tech investors.?

Gulf War recession (July 1990 to March 1991)?

A mild recession kicked off in 1990, as the Federal Reserve had been slowly raising interest rates for over two years to keep inflation in check. Those moves slowed down the economy, which then took a hit when Iraq invaded Kuwait in the summer of 1990 (followed by U.S. involvement and the Gulf War) and caused global oil prices to?more than double.?

Energy crisis recession (July 1981 to November 1982)?

The Federal Reserve tried to tame rising inflation with stricter monetary policy that raised interest rates and slowed the economy. The recession was exacerbated by another global energy crisis as a new Iranian regime decreased its oil output, rising global oil prices.?

1980 Recession (January 1980 to July 1980)?

Inflation rates rose throughout the late-1970s, reaching double-digit levels in 1979 and?peaking at 22%?in 1980.?

Oil embargo recession (November 1973 to March 1975)?

In the fall of 1973, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, or OPEC, put an embargo on oil imports from multiple countries, including the U.S., over their support of Israel’s military. Oil prices roughly?quadrupled,?as a result, putting a major crunch on the economy as gas prices soared for consumers, reducing their spending on other items.?

(I was 19 years old in 1973, I remember waiting in line at a gas station to get gas, we had to go on odd or even days, depending on the last number of your license plate, and running out of gas. People behind me helped me push my 1970 Orange (yea I know, but that was a popular color then) AMC Javelin up to the pump.)?

The recession of 1969-1970 (December 1969 to November 1970)?

The 1960s essentially began and ended with bookending recessions, but in between, them was a long economic expansion that saw inflation rise by the end of the decade.??

The recession of 1960-1961 (April 1960 to February 1961)

Even though two previous recessions in the ’50s stemmed from tighter monetary policies giving rise to interest rates, the Federal Reserve began slowly raising interest rates following the end of the previous recession in 1958, leading to another short-lived recession at the start of the 1960s.?

The recession of 1957-1958 (August 1957 to April 1958)?

This recession in the late-1950s lasted eight months. GDP fell by 3.7% and unemployment peaked at 7.4% as the government’s tighter monetary policy in the mid-1950s raised interest rates in an effort to curb inflation. As a result, consumer prices also continued to rise, which led to a decline in spending.?

Meanwhile, a global recession (which also happened to coincide with the 1957 Asian flu pandemic that?killed 1.1 million people?worldwide) further hurt the U.S. economy as the country’s exports?declined by more than $4 billion.??

Post-Korean War recession (July 1953 to May 1954)?

As with previous post-war recessions, this downturn was spurred by a shift in government spending after the end of the Korean War (which lasted from 1950 to 1953).??

Post-WWII slump (November 1948 to October 1949)?

After the war, there was an eight-month recession (see below), but the economic challenges stemming from the end of World War II again caught up with the U.S. economy during the last stretch of the 1940s.?

But this 11-month recession — in which the country’s GDP dropped by less than 2% — was considered “very mild” by economists, who attribute the downturn in part to?consumer demand leveling off?after previously spiking when wartime rationing efforts ceased.?

Post-World War II recession?(February 1945 to October 1945)?

This downturn was caused primarily by a significant drop in government spending and GDP (which fell 11%) as the U.S. pivoted from a wartime economy built around manufacturing supplies for the World War II effort to a peacetime economy focused on creating civilian jobs for returning veterans.?

The Roosevelt recession (May 1937 to June 1938)?

This recession was essentially a 13-month pause in the nation’s recovery from the Great Depression and modern economists have called the episode a “cautionary tale.”?

In 1937, President Franklin D. Roosevelt cut government spending at a time when the country’s economic recovery was still fragile enough to be derailed. As a result, unemployment jumped from roughly 14% to nearly 20% and the real GDP fell by 10%.?

Now What?

I don’t know if I highlighted the right things, what jumped out to you?

I’m not an economist, can’t predict the future and lord knows I don’t know what’s right for you to do, but what the past has taught me are these 10 principles. (Full disclosure, I haven’t always followed them, funny how day-to-day life interferes with the best-laid plans, but I “aspire” to them, so here you go.)

As my grandmother used to say “this too shall pass” so don’t despair, plan for the worst, and prepare for the future, remember, you have more life to live!

10 Rules for HOPE!

1.????You are Normal – keep evolving

2.????You ARE NOT your Limits – make more mistakes!

3.????You Don’t Know Everything – gather a team who knows more than you!

4.????Big Doors Swing on Small Hinges – don’t sweat the small stuff

(hint, it’s all small stuff!)

5.????Try & Fail…OFTEN (and again, and again!)

6.????Never Be the Smartest Person in The Room – if you are, you’re in the wrong room!

7.????Make Others Successful – the law of reciprocity works!

8.????Save 10% of Every Single Dime You Make

9.????Balance Your Lifetime for yourself, family, spirituals, physical activity, and self-awareness!

10.?Give Back – Time – Attention – Money – Self

And don’t forget grandma – “this too shall pass!” `